Art Across the Line

The Tohono O'odham people lived in the Sonoran Desert countless
centuries before it was divided into Arizona and Mexico. When the
U.S.-Mexico border came, it sliced through these traditional lands,
separating friends and family.

We've heard plenty of debate about border policies and immigration
issues, but in a new exhibit at the Arizona State Museum, we can get a
new perspective—from art by young people living on borders,
including Tohono O'odham youths whose families have been ripped
apart.

The Border Project, directed by teacher and artist Morgana
Wallace, is a mixed-media art installation highlighting the
perspectives of high school students living on the border dividing
Arizona and Mexico, as well as the border between the Tohono O'odham
reservation and the town of Ajo.

Art for the exhibit was started back in October 2007, when Morgana
led students at Ajo High School, Tohono O'odham High School (in Sells)
and Cobach High School (in Sonoyta, Sonora) in generating discussion,
drawings, writings and sculpture on their views of the border. Artist
Jewel Fraser Clearwater captured the essence of students and their art
in photographs of the young artists posing with their pieces, with
lines drawn across their faces as a powerful metaphor.

Working with the students, Wallace saw that "youth had empathy for
other youth. The pictures drawn, the sculptures made, and the words
written were very telling—footprints, bags of money, fences,
people crying, the Border Patrol, skulls, drugs. ... I feel (the
students) are the most likely generation to give a raw and honest
reaction to what's going on."

Though Wallace directed the project, she stresses that it's the
result of an incredible collaboration between numerous skilled and
dedicated students, artists and community members.

Scary Things and Big ... Names

Ron Jeremy hopes to prove his skill set involves more than just sex
positions in Blood Moon Rising, a comedy-horror movie produced
by Phoenix-based filmmakers Brian Skiba and Laurie Love.

Gabriele Andres, a local filmmaker who's helping publicize the
event, says Jeremy will be present at the Saturday night northwest-side
screening, glad-handing and waving to the crowd.

"Doing what he does best," she says.

Well, that point can be argued.

The adult-film legend appears in the 90-minute film for about 15
minutes. Some of the film's cast and crew—including
Jeremy—are slated to appear at Zen Rock (121 E. Congress St.)
afterward, around 10 p.m.

"Ron Jeremy was ecstatic at the fact that he was going to be treated
like VIP," Andres says.

Skiba, a Tucson native, describes his movie as a grind-house horror
film. The idea for the film sprung up around Halloween, which proved to
be a source of inspiration.

About halfway through the film, local bar and grill Joe and Vicky's
Place gets some time in the spotlight. He says to look for Joe and
Vicky's "when the werewolves leave the bar on motorcycles. Yeah, we
have motorcycle werewolves. ... They can walk and talk and party."

Tucson is getting the screening for several reasons. One: Many of
the investors are residents. Another, says Skiba, is Tucson's attitude
toward the arts. It's easier for art projects to fall by the wayside in
Scottsdale, where he lives, he says.

Filmmakers will be seeking feedback from the audience so they can
tweak any weak points before the next premiere, on Oct. 16 in
Tempe.

Raise Your Consciousness

The Rillito River Project invites Tucsonans to join in the
festivities of Bat Night 2009, an evening of performing arts, education
and 40,000 bats filling the sky.

Flam Chen, a local pyrotechnic performing-arts group, will be on
hand. Writer/poet Logan Phillips will be reading selections from his
work, and bat expert Yar Petryszyn will offer an introductory talk
about the bat population, which is one of the largest in the
Southwest.

Extra parking is available at the UA farm on the corner of Campbell
Avenue and Roger Road.

The Mexican free-tailed bats are nomadic and migrate here for mating
season in May. About 20,000 arrive, and by the time they leave in
September, they have doubled in number. They leave the cave nightly to
search for food.

Ellen Skotheim, the founder and creative director of the Rillito
River Project, says the group's goal is to raise awareness of
environmental issues facing the Southwest.

"We give (event-goers) an experience that changes their
consciousness," she says. "When you're there, and the moon is coming
out, and the bats come out, it is really special."

Those in attendance should bring blankets, flashlights and water.
St. Philip's Plaza and Campbell Avenue businesses will be open for
events, too. Those happenings include a film screening of a man fishing
the river during rush hour traffic, and info about the work of Patmore
Lewis, a violinist who produced a song about the river.

If the rain happens to come down on Saturday, the event will shift
to the next evening, Sunday, Sept. 13.

Broke Advice

Phil Villarreal reading

7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11

Barnes and Noble

5130 E. Broadway Blvd.

512-1166

Phil Villarreal, a journalist for the Arizona Daily Star, has
written a book about what it takes to keep from going broke. Secrets
of a Stingy Scoundrel, Villarreal's second book, was released Sept.
1, and he will host a reading at the eastside Barnes and Noble this
Friday.

Villarreal is a UA graduate who started writing a humor column for
the Arizona Daily Wildcat when he was a freshman. After working
as a general assignment reporter for several years, he became the
Star's film critic, a gig he held until this year. He has won
several awards, including the Arizona Press Club's award for best film
video and television criticism. He also wrote Stormin' Mormin, a
novel about a people trying to escape torturously boring marriages.
Becauseitoldyouso.com is
the place Villarreal's unfiltered spouting can be found.

Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel is a humorous look at how to be
a cheapskate. The cover of the book features George Washington's face
with drawn-on red horns, eyes, a mustache and goatee.

The book, which is broken up into "100 dirty little money-grabbing
secrets," has section titles like "Don't Poop on Coupons" and "Tipping
is Just a City in China."

In "The Legend of the Cubic Zirconium Heirloom," tip no. 84, he
argues why diamonds should be replaced by much-cheaper cubic zirconia
when proposing. His reasoning is that the value of diamonds is a trick
played on consumers by profiteers. He writes: "I can announce with
trembling pleasure that this idea is a pure stroke of unadulterated
genius sent down to me directly from the highest heaven. ... It really
is something Gandhi, Einstein or Mr. Wizard should have thought of
first."